“I thought it so likely you would hear from Wynn the particulars concerning John Southey’s will*, that I felt no
inclination to repeat the story to you, which would not have been the case had
the old man done as he ought to have done. Good part of his property,
consisting of a newly purchased estate, is given to a very distant relative of
his mother’s family, and, of course, gone for ever. About 2000l. in legacies: the rest falls to his brother, as sole executor and residuary
legatee. Neither my own name nor either of my brothers’ is mentioned.
Thomas Southey apprised me of this the day of the old
man’s death. With him I am on good terms,—that is, if we were in
the same town, we should dine together, for the sake of relationship, about
once a-month; and if any thing were to happen to me, of any kind of family
importance,—such as the birth of a child,—I should write a letter
to him, beginning ‘Dear Uncle.’ He invites me to the
‘Cottage,’ and I shall go there on my way to Lisbon. I think it
likely that he will leave his property rather to Tom than to me, for the name’s sake, but not likely that
he will leave it out of the family. He is about three or four-and-fifty, a man
of no education, nor indeed of any thing else. And so

* An uncle of my father’s, a wealthy solicitor
of Taunton. See vol. i. p. 6.

46

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE

Ætat. 32.

you have all that I can tell you about the matter,
excepting that there’s an end of it. Some people, they say, are born with
silver spoons in their mouths, and others with wooden ladles. I will hope
something for my daughter, upon the strength of this proverb, inasmuch as she
has three silver cups; but, for myself, I am of the fraternity of the wooden
ladle.

“. . . . . Last night I began the
Preface*—huzza! And now, Grosvenor, let me tell you what I have to do. I am writing, 1.
The History of Portugal; 2. The Chronicle of the Cid; 3. The Curse of Kehama; 4. Espriella’s
Letters. Look you, all these I am writing. The second and third of
these must get into the press, and out of it before this time twelvemonths, or
else I shall be like the Civil List. By way of interlude comes in this Preface.
Don’t swear, and bid me do one thing at a time. I tell you I can’t
afford to do one thing at a time—no, nor two neither; and it is only by
doing many things that I contrive to do so much: for I cannot work long
together at any thing without hurting myself; and so I do every thing by heats;
then, by the time I am tired of one, my inclination for another is come round.

“Dr. Southey is
arrived here. He puts his degree in his pocket, summers here, and will winter
in London, to attend at an hospital. About this, of course, I shall apply to
Carlisle; and, if it should so

happen that you do not see him here, shall give him a
direction to you when he goes to London.

R. S.”

Grosvenor Charles Bedford (1773-1839)
The son of Horace Walpole's correspondent Charles Bedford; he was auditor of the
Exchequer and a friend of Robert Southey who contributed to several of Southey's
publications.

Sir Anthony Carlisle (1768-1840)
English surgeon and professor of anatomy at the Royal Academy (1808).

Henry Herbert Southey (1783-1865)
The younger brother of Robert Southey; educated at Edinburgh University, he was physician
to George IV, Gresham Professor of Medicine, and friend of Sir Walter Scott.

John Southey (1738 c.-1806)
The elder brother of Robert Southey's father; he was a wealthy lawyer who died unmarried
and unloved.

Thomas Southey (d. 1811)
The younger brother and one-time business partner of the elder Robert Southey; he
excluded the poet and his other nephews from his will.

Thomas Southey (1777-1838)
The younger brother of Robert Southey; he was a naval captain (1811) and afterwards a
Customs officer. He published A Chronological History of the West
Indies (1828).

Charles Watkin Williams Wynn (1775-1850)
The son of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, fourth baronet; educated at Westminster and Christ
Church, Oxford, Robert Southey's friend and benefactor was a Whig MP for Old Sarum (1797)
and Montgomeryshire (1799-1850). He was president of the Board of Control (1822-28).